The government directed Niti Aayog to make a road map for the revival of UGC and AICTE, which is at present working on the restructuring of the Medical Council of India (MCI), under the guidance of the vice chairman of NITI Aayog, Arvind Panagariya. "Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has

The government directed Niti Aayog to make a road map for the revival of UGC and AICTE, which is at present working on the restructuring of the Medical Council of India (MCI), under the guidance of the vice chairman of NITI Aayog, Arvind Panagariya.

"Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has directed Niti Aayog to also work on restructuring the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) as well a board looking after Homeopathy and Ayurvedic education in the country," a senior government official said.

This is on the same lines as that of the restructuring strategy for the MCI, he added.

Why are these organisations to be restructured?

"The general consensus is that these organisations are needed to be made more relevant to the changing times today. Also it is felt that there is a need to make them more performance-oriented so that the quality of education also improves," the official said

On MCI, the panel has firmed up the view that the organisation should be scrapped to increase the number of medical colleges in the country for producing more doctors in view of growing demand for healthcare services, another official source said.

Who are looking after the conditions of MCI?

Besides, Panagariya, Prime Minister's additional Principal Secretary PK Mishra, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant and Union Health Secretary are also on board of the committee to look into the issue of poor regulation of medical education by MCI

Proposals of the committee on restructuring MCI:

The committee has proposed to set up an altogether new body with three pronged approach - career, enterprise and ethics

Earlier this year, a Parliamentary committee had called for revamping the MCI saying, it has failed in its role as a regulator which has led to a downfall in India's medical education system

The committee even asked the government to exercise its constitutional authority and take decisive action to restructure and revamp the regulatory system of medical education and practice.